It’s a boy! Lemur born at Duke during snowstorm

Zoboomafoo, the late lemur and star of the PBS children’s show, became a grandaddy on Saturday.

The Duke Lemur Center is celebrating the birth of a male born to a sifaka lemur named Gisela, the daughter of Zoboomafoo. The tiny lemur arrived during the winter storm that brought the Triangle to a halt over the weekend. A photo of the furry black-and-white tyke was posted on Facebook and Twitter by the center’s staff.

“In the middle of Saturday’s blizzard, sifaka Gisela gave birth to a handsome baby boy!” the post said, adding: “Mom, baby, and staff are all doing well!”

Staffers stayed overnight at the center to feed and care for the lemurs during the storm. The Facebook post said one veterinary technician walked two miles in the snow to check on the baby.

The newborn is the latest descendent of Zoboomafoo, whose real name was Jovian. He was the leaping, yellow-eyed lemur who inspired the children’s television show of the same name that aired on PBS from 1999 to 2001.

Jovian died at the Duke Lemur Center in 2014 at the age of 20, prompting an outpouring from the public. He co-starred with brothers Chris and Martin Kratt, the human hosts of the show that educated children about rare species around the world.

The baby lemur has not been named yet, a Duke spokesman said Monday.

The Duke Lemur Center has the largest collection of lemurs outside of their native Madagascar. The center focuses on research, awareness and conservation of this threatened group of mammals.

This story was originally published January 25, 2016 at 3:23 PM with the headline "It’s a boy! Lemur born at Duke during snowstorm."